Chapter 7: Rude Awakenings

A small flicker of movement and the sound of steps snapped Jade's eyes open, alert to the sudden danger and calling a column of fire to appear just in front of the intruder even as he took his feet, the blaze frightening the spy enough that they started to run away but the warmth dyed as he dropped the first 'spell' and then settled a chilled air around the man to slow him, moving over to put his spear to the man's throat, pulling the attempt to flee up short.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded, glancing at the still passed out girls before back to the scared man. Lot of help they were. So much for taking watch Princess…

"I'm not telling you anything necromancer." the man spat on the end of his spear, narrowing eyes at Jade scornfully.

"Then I don't really have much of a use for you." Jade shrugged some at the man, he wasn't nearly awake or patient enough to deal with the refusal and started to stab him when he immediately let out a high-pitched squeak of protest.

"Waiit!" he squealed with a new appreciation for the General's lack of compassion. "I was sent here by Victor…he wanted me to keep an eye on what you all were doing after you escaped."

"So he figured we would escape…which means he sent that…woman." Jade didn't quite want to bring back the images of Nebilim at this time of night. "…on purpose…why?'

"Huh?" the bewildered look he was getting in return for his uncharacteristically inarticulate question told him that the man knew as little as possible. Not that he could let the guy return to give a report as to where they were headed or what he might have overheard.

As opposed to just murdering the man in cold blood he twirled around once, gaining the speed to crack him in the head hard enough to knock him out but not enough to kill him - with the blunt end of his weapon. There was little else he figured he would find out from the frightened but uppity servant - instead he went to his bag to dig out some rope and returned to tie the man up and then took him to the nearby woods to hang him from one of the trees as hogtied - he had a chance that someone would find him that way after all.

Once he finished with the disposal he returned to the camp and jostled Natalia back into being awake, ignoring her moan and then slight protest, "You don't have to be so mean."

"You don't have to fall asleep on watch and nearly get us all gutted either." Jade returned with his usual merciless quips, laying back down. "You have another hour and then wake up Tear - I'll need at least a little rest before tomorrow. You can stay awake this time right?"

"Um…yes…" Natalia's anger deflated into embarrassment when he told her that and glanced to where she saw the results of the missing grass that had been burned away in his attack. She sighed a little at herself. Still too soft princess…I need to be so much more careful - everyone could have been killed cause I'm to used to being spoiled.

After an hour of complaining at herself she sighed and moved to nudge the other girl. "Hey, Tear…there isn't much time left but can you watch for a while…there was a small exchange last night and Jade had to use a little more magic and needs the rest."

"Sure." Tear answered with a small smile, pushing herself to a sitting position and scratching the back of her head as she looked around, noting the burned spot but not asking. "Get some more rest Natalia…I'm not certain how much we'll be able to get once we start through the forest."

"Thanks Tear." Natalia tried to apologize with her eyes and then settled herself on the ground again with a small sigh in hopes that she would be able to adjust to life on the road again a little more quickly. Another mistake couldn't be afforded after all - the first one they'd just been very lucky with.

She managed to get her eyes closed and left Tear to watch over them as they rested, her own blue eyes staring toward where the sun would rise over the horizon.

The following day.

The group had managed to get through the morning without incident and were well into the forest when they started to slow. Natalia was still chatting away and ready to step into one of the traps that were across the path when Jade reached out an arm to pause her, ruby eyes narrowed on the woods.

"Come out." Tear called, signaling to the princess that she was the only one that didn't notice the small ambush. "What do you want?"

A fairly average man in brown breeches and a matching tan shirt stepped from the woods, mud on his boots hinting that he was often this far into the forest, there were paired swords on his belt and he had an unshaven face as he watched them from a far distance he considered safe.

"This road here is taxed." he announced toward them. "You send one of your group to give us 600 Gald and then we'll let you pass on through. Any trouble and I'll signal the archers to start making pin cushions outta you."

Jade rolled his eyes as Tear sighed, the General muttering. "Just bandits…and here I was worried about an actual threat."

"We should just give them the money for now." Tear commented. "We need to worry about speed in this particular instance."

"Yes, I'm afraid I agree." Jade shrugged nonchalantly, "Well, mind carrying over a purse with that much then Princess?"

"Me?" Natalia managed to keep most of the indignant pout from her voice. "Why can't you take it?"

"I'm an old man…you think I should walk further than I already have? You are a young healthy woman Princess…I'm sure you'll manage." Jade replied calmly, handing her the pouch in question she was suppose to trade off.

"You are a horrible manipulator General." Natalia snapped as she snatched the cloth with the coins and stalked toward the bandit.

"Stop!" he called. "Put your weapon down before you come over here."

"I outta shoot him." she hissed under her breath before dropping her bow and quiver and continuing the hundred yard walk to the nervous bandit before holding it out at him. "Here!"

Some guy - a thief and a coward. She thought at him with distaste. I should have gone with the other group and made Guy come with Jade and Tear - sense when did I get made the commoner?

"Natalia." the sharp yell of warning from the General snapped her attention back to the bandit a moment too late…he'd grabbed her arm and put a knife next to her Adam's apple.

"Okay guys…go get the other two." the bandit's voice seemed to change a little and Natalia noted that the bearding was fake…it was all a trap.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" she asked, insulted by the whole chain of events.

"Sure Princess…glad it was you they sent over actually." the guy mocked her. "I would have been more worried about taking either of the other two hostage…too many chocolates and time spent shopping to be as dangerous as the war trained heroes. It's pretty well known that you are one of the weaker links."

"Weaker links?" she hissed, raising an arm and knocking his knife away before grabbing his arm and flipping him clear over her back to the ground. "Why am I always the one that you people think is incapable! Jerk."

That made Tear pause and blink a moment and Jade laughed before he pointed toward some of the trees, finishing a chant he'd already been whispering before she'd ever hit his arm. The trees behind her exploding with fire from his spell and knocking the Princess over on top of her previous assaulter with the blast that resulted from his quick clean up of the 'archers'.

"Do you think you had to go that far?" Tear asked, pausing her own chant as she looked at the circle of dead and charred forest where his spell had ravished the life within it's length. "And I thought you said that you were under another fon seal."

Jade shrugged to her as he fixed his glasses, staring toward where the princess was trying to dazedly get back up after being knocked from her feet. "I fixed it…besides…no harm was done."

"Depends on who you ask." Tear returned as she eyed the destruction that he'd caused in a few moments…she never had gotten to see him at his full potential and now she realized why the enemies had tried to seal his fon slots - the General was one of the most dangerous men alive if he could do that.

"You could have let me get further away first." Natalia accused with a deep frown. "What if I had gotten caught in the edge of that?"

"You weren't anywhere near where it could have done major direct damage Princess." Jade smiled to her lightly. "Besides, as I just said. No harm was done. If I had waited too long you would have had arrows sticking out of your back. Now we have ourselves someone that can tell us just who is after us. All in all I'd say this little interlude worked out beautifully."

He didn't pay attention to the glare he was receiving from the Princess and instead pulled the man up and started to consider the quickest way to get the information he needed out of the man, glancing back to Tear for suggestions - given that he knew Natalia would need a little more time to adjust to the fact that his spell had knocked her down rather well. The resulting dizziness alone wouldn't leave her as a possibility to come up with clear plans for a few more minutes.

"It doesn't matter to me." Tear replied a little cruelly, aware of what was at risk if they took too long a time. Unwilling to listen to her conscious over the welfare of anyone else, though she did look away once the man shook his head and said he didn't know anything. Well aware of what would follow and not wanting to see just what would be necessary before the man would talk.

End Chapter

Feb 14 2007: Wow, it's hard to get to this fiction. I haven't played the game in a while cause I've been so busy (which makes me sad cause even though I beat it I want to go back through and get -everything- now that I've beaten it once). I think cause it's been so long that's part of the reason I'm finding it hard to get to this fiction. Don't give up on me yet though cause I'm still planning to continue with this and perhaps go back and fix up some of the chapters that have already been written. There are pieces I sort of want to fix but I wanna get more of the first draft (which is what this is as I don't have a beta-reader) out before I consider going back and fixing anything up. I will eventually get to this fiction back and forth but updates will be much rarer than some of the other fictions I work on - I'll be perfectly honest about that.

-Aura

To my reviewers:

Shadowlover101 - Thank you. I hope you keep up with it even though my updates are fairly rare. Thanks for the review.

Reyana Draconis - I can see Jade with someone but it would be something that would take a lot to get to. So any actual romance won't arrive until later in the fiction (but I would rather keep it that way anyway - it's more realistic for anyone). Thanks for the great review…feedback is the only reason I got this chapter out at all.